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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23552098">A Man of Logic, a Man of Science</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory'>ssrhpurgatory</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wolf 359 (Radio)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Am I Alone Now?, Angst, F/M, Fan Comics, Mild Gore, image description included</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:26:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23552098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>TFW you reach the point where listening to canon episodes gives you feelings about the completely non-canon shipping you're doing between Hilbert and the terrible woman you made to be his lab manager in the 90s and then you make angsty fan comics about it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alexander Hilbert/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Man of Logic, a Man of Science</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
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<p>Image description:</p>
<p>A sketchy grayscale comic over eight pages, starring two characters, Rosemary Epps and Alexander Hilbert. Alexander is a bald white man with glasses, who is variously wearing a white lab coat over a collared shirt and a flight suit, and appears both middle-aged and elderly throughout the comic. Rosemary is a fat black woman in a suit, with an ascot tied in a bow at her neck.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 1</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: An image of Alexander in lab coat, looking down.</p>
<p>Narration text: I am a man of logic. A man of science.</p>
<p>Panel 2: Rosemary appears, the upper half of her face off-screen. She has set a hand on Alexander's arm, and he is looking her way.</p>
<p>Rosemary: How's it going in here?</p>
<p>Alexander: Take a look.</p>
<p>Narration text: But sometimes, with her...</p>
<p>Panel 3: Rosemary is leaning over, looking at what Alexander was working on, an excited look on her face. Alexander is looking her direction, smiling fondly.</p>
<p>Rosemary: Oh, goodness! How gorgeous.</p>
<p>Narration text: I wonder whether it might be worth it to value other things as well.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 2</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: A long, thin horizontal panel, showing just the top half of both Alexander and Rosemary's heads. Alexander looks worried.</p>
<p>Narration text: I am a man of logic.</p>
<p>Alexander: I just... I had hoped to be further along in my work by now.</p>
<p>Panel 2: Another long horizontal panel, showing Rosemary and Alexander from just below the shoulders to about waist height. Alexander's hands are resting on a tabletop, and Rosemary's hand is on his shoulder.</p>
<p>Narration text: But there is no logic here.</p>
<p>Rosemary: I know. But...</p>
<p>Narration text: Not in her sympathy.</p>
<p>Panel 3: Another long horizontal panel, showing a close-up of Rosemary's hand resting against the back of Alexander's hand.</p>
<p>Narration text: Not in the touch of her hand...</p>
<p>Rosemary: You <em>are</em> making progress. And I'm here to help.</p>
<p>Narration text: ...warm against mine.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 3</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: Another close-up of Alexander and Rosemary's hands. He has turned his hand over in order to hold hers.</p>
<p>Narration text: I am a man of science. Science tells me this:</p>
<p>Panel 2: Another close-up of Alexander and Rosemary's hands. Rosemary has pulled away, and Alexander's hand is still open and palm-up.</p>
<p>Narration text: Physical touch increases dopamine and serotonin.</p>
<p>Rosemary: I should let you get back to work.</p>
<p>Narration text: So if my heart races when her hand is in mine, it is only a sign that I am human.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 4</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: A close-up of Alexander's face. He is looking down and looks distressed.</p>
<p>Narration text: My work will change the world. Some day, my work will change the world.</p>
<p>Panel 2: A close-up of Alexander's hand, which is still open and palm-up.</p>
<p>Narration text: There is no logic in wanting...</p>
<p>Panel 3: A close-up of Alexander's hand, now balled into a fist.</p>
<p>Narration text: ...what I cannot have.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 5</strong>
</p>
<p>One large panel. Alexander's face can just be seen in profile, and he is holding his hand up, pressed against a glass surface. Rosemary is holding her hand up as well, pressed to the other side of the glass, leaving dark streaks there. Her skin is streaked and blotched with damage, her hair is gray, and there are dark blotches in the whites of her eyes. The implication is that she is dying from a Decima infection.</p>
<p>Narration text: And when science is not enough...</p>
<p>Alexander: I should never have agreed to this. You will die alone in there.</p>
<p>Rosemary: Hey, it's better than cancer. At least this way I'm <em>useful</em>.</p>
<p>Narration text: There is no logic in mourning what was never mine.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 6</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: A very young Alexander, sitting at a hospital bedside, holding the hand of the person in the bed.</p>
<p>Narration text: A loss is only a reminder of what is at stake.</p>
<p>Alexander: Please do not leave me, Olga. I am not ready to be alone.</p>
<p>Narration text: This is not the first.</p>
<p>Panel 2: Alexander's hand, holding a photo of the first crew that he worked with on the Hephaestus, with Sam, Mace, and Lovelace front and center, Fourier and Hui crammed into the frame on one side, and Alexander half-seen in the distance behind them.</p>
<p>Narration text: It will not be the last.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 7</strong>
</p>
<p>One large panel, of Alexander, elderly and in a flight suit. He is pressing his fingertips the plaque on a door.</p>
<p>Narration text: I am a man of logic, a man of science.</p>
<p>Alexander: This door was not here last time.</p>
<p>Narration text: And I have always been alone.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Page 8</strong>
</p>
<p>Panel 1: Alexander, elderly and in a flight suit, his glasses tipped up to rest against his forehead and his eyes shut. He is leaning against one fist, apparently dozing, his other hand resting flat and palm-down against a table.</p>
<p>Narration text: And there is no logic in dreaming...</p>
<p>Panel 2: A close-up of Alexander's hand, with Rosemary's hand over it, her fingertips just brushing the back of it.</p>
<p>Narration text: ...of a world...</p>
<p>Panel 3: A close up of Alexander's hand, clasped around Rosemary's.</p>
<p>Narration text: ...where I was not.</p>
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